False Darkness
by Wildcard
Summary: Yami no Malik teaches Yami no Bakura the true meaning of 'darkness', but learns something unexpected along the way. Darkish, containing both violence and dubious consent.


False Darkness.

Were it not for the stupidity of it, Yami no Malik would almost find it amusing how the thief calls himself the darkness.

Fool. 

Him, darkness? He is nothing but a mortal. How he can claim to be that which he does not even understand? Yami no Malik knows darkness far better than Yami no Bakura ever will; after all, Yami no Malik first manifested himself to Malik in his weaker half's shadow. He is the Shadow Born, he is the child of darkness and the creation of hatred. He is pure, he is wicked and he alone knows what darkness truly is. He alone knows what darkness truly desires.

So of course Yami no Malik takes it upon himself to correct the foolish error of the thief. Who better to teach about the Darkness than one who came from the shadows? He is patient. He waits in his weaker's half shadow until Malik is visiting Ryou, and until Malik has coaxed out the spirit of the Ring. Yami no Malik has never understood the quarrelsome friendship that his host shares with Yami no Bakura, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't need to understand it to exploit it. Just like so many other things in the world.

It's almost disappointingly easy in the end.

Yami no Malik flickers into Malik's shadow, listens to the thief's startled exclamation then takes control from Malik as he has done so many times before. That leaves him and Yami no Bakura alone in the kitchen, mugs of half-cooling cider forgotten. Yami no Bakura can't retreat into his Ring without leaving Ryou at risk, and he knows that Yami no Malik is not like Yami no Yuugi. If deprived of his target, Yami no Malik would have no problem hurting Ryou instead and that could kill the boy, and leave Yami no Bakura without a host. With the thief in control, at least they have a better chance of surviving.

And survive they do.

When it's over, the body lying curled up on the kitchen floor is bruised, bloody and broken but alive and Yami no Malik leaves the house with a dark smirk on his lips.

He's taught the thief what darkness is.

Not that Yami no Bakura didn't fight. The fool tried to use the Ring on Yami no Malik. Stupid. The Ring controls the Shadow Realm. Yami no Malik **is** the Shadow Realm, or a part of it at least. How can you attack him with what he is? The Ring might have been able to block the Rod and prevent Yami no Malik from using the Rod on him, but that wasn't what the Shadow Born had in mind anyway. Besides, his foolish weaker self had given the Rod away to the Pharaoh, so that was a moot point really. Still, Yami no Bakura had fought, first with the Ring and when that failed, with fists and feet and knives, with everything that he had and when that failed, he fought to get away.

All the better.

Responsive victims are so much more entertaining than the ones that just lie there. Each whimper of pain, each suppressed moan tells Yami no Malik that he's got the other's full attention and that Yami no Bakura is absorbing the lessons about the nature of darkness. He's feeling the fear, the pain, the agony and hatred. He's feeling darkness against his skin and fire inside him, he's feeling kisses empty of meaning and caresses devoid of affection. He is feeling and he is learning, and by the time that Yami no Malik leaves, the Shadow Born is content that Yami no Bakura has learnt what darkness is.

...yet the next time the thief duels the Pharaoh, he repeats his claim despite knowing that Malik is there and where Malik is, Yami no Malik is. Yami no Malik is Malik's shadow after all. As long as the light exists and Malik exists, Yami no Malik will exist as well, and Yami no Bakura knows that. Surely he knows that. So why does he declare 'I am the darkness' still? And moresoever, why does he have that particular glint in his bitter chocolate eyes? It is almost as if he is challenging Yami no Malik to correct him again. It is almost as if he is _inviting_ Yami no Malik to try again.

Well. How can anyone refuse an invitation delivered in a manner so prettily-defiant?

Yami no Malik takes the other up on his 'offer', shows him darkness wrapped in sun-kissed skin and Shadow Realm-shaded eyes. He shows him darkness, wraps darkness around a pale throat and pulls darkness around them to let the thief see how suffocating it is to those who are not a part of it.

Silly thief.

Silly, beautiful thief.

If he truly was the darkness that he claimed to be, then the thief would not have chosen Malik to side with. The thief would have recognized his own and been on Yami no Malik's side instead, but the thief isn't darkness. He is merely mortal and stupid, like all mortals are stupid. And because he's mortal, he bleeds and breaks and screams, just like all mortals do. Yami no Bakura's no better than any of the other mortals that Yami no Malik has encountered during the course of his existence, but he is a little more interesting. Just a little.

Because... he does it again.

States that he is the darkness.

So, Yami no Malik visits him a third time, to give him a third lesson. Third time's the charm after all, and why would Yami no Bakura provoke him like this? And this time, he watches his victim more closely. He listens to the moans, and finds the pleasure in them. He forces the eyes open, and find lust-dilated pupils. Milk-white legs lash out as if in a fierce kick, but it's really just an excuse for their owner to part them without being caught giving in, and when pale wrists struggle to get free of the ground, they seem to almost caress the hands holding them down instead of striking. There's resistance still but Yami no Malik now knows that it's only for show.

If Yami no Bakura cannot be the darkness, he will love it instead.

Fin.


End file.
